PARAMARIBO – “Since may 2023 a total of 10 flights were carried out and 879 Haïtians arrived in Suriname. 309 Haïtians seized this opportunity to come to Suriname this year,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Collaboration (Bibis) in a press release. Suriname’s Foreign Affairs Ministry made it clear that from the very first flight the Haïtian consulate in Suriname provided its assistance to ensure that all of the documents of the Haïtian immigrants are au­thentic.

“Many Haïtians preferred to file their requests via the Haïtian consulate,” said the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Sources told Suriname that this is were things went wrong. Employees at the Haïtian consulate started charging between one hun­dred to four hundred American dollars for falsified documents. The fake documents were used to get children from Haïti to Suriname. The fake documents claimed that the parents of these children resided in Suriname but as it turns out they had no­body in Suriname. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained in its press release that these flights were given green light because of humanitarian reasons. The objective of these flights was to reunite families. Next week Foreign Affairs Minister Albert Ramdin will discuss this issue with his Haïtian counterpart Dominique Dupay. …[+]

 PARAMARIBO – Pupils who passed to the 9th grade and the 10th grade can’t find any room, due to the fact that most of the ninth and tenth graders who are enrolled at the nation’s Mulo, LBO and Technical schools did not pass to the next grade. “The ninth and tenth graders who did not pass to the next grade have to redo the grade,” several school principals told Times of Suriname.

These principals explained that the classrooms for the 9th and the 10th grade are overcrowded and that only a lim­ited number of spots are available. “I can only enroll 50 students in the 9th grade because many students did not pass to the 10th grade,” a principal told Times of Suriname. The principals also explained that many students did not pass because the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture has officially put an end to its free flow policy. But many students assumed that they would automatically pass or flow to the next grade and that they there did not need to score high scores for their tests and assignments. The principals had repeatedly reminded parents that the free flow policy is a thing of the past but evidently not everyone believed it. Many parents did not find a spot for their child and we’re put on a waiting list. Vanity Esajas deems it regrettable that she the Mulo schools that are located near her house are already full. “I really hope that the ministry does not place my son at a remote location but that it finds a spot for my son at a school that is located in our neighborhood,” said Esajas. …[+]

Healthcare sector in critical condition

PARAMARIBO – Since 2021 the Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) and the Paediatric Intensive Care (PICU) of the Academic Hospital Paramaribo (AZP) have been suffering from brain drain. Brain drain refers to the emigration of highly skilled and educated individuals from one country to another, creating a significant loss for the nation left behind. More than 60 percent of all of the employees who are highly skilled have left the nation’s biggest hospital in the past 3 years.

De paediatricians have sounded the alarm repeatedly and have made it clear that the nation’s health sec­tor is on the brink of collapse. In 2022 concerned parents presented their peti­tions to parliament after babies who did not get proper healthcare had died. But to this day the situation has not improved and has in fact only gotten worse. In 2022 the AZP was forced to reduce the number of hospital beds at his Paediatric Ward from 27 to 11. The number of hospital beds at the AZP’s NICU was also reduced from 10 to 5 that year because half of the people who worked there went abroad to seek a better future. Since 2022 things have only gone downhill at the NICU and the PICU. In the past the AZP asked the other hospitals if their nurses could lend a helping hand but that is no longer possible because those hospitals are also suffering from brain drain phenomenon. A concerned medical specialist expressed grave concern over the fact that the nation’s healthcare sector is cur­rently in critical condition. “How many times must we sound the alarm?” The NICU and the PICU have evidently sounded the alarm six times in the past three years. They made it clear that they need more manpower stat in order to guaran­tee optimal healthcare. …[+]

PARAMARIBO – The district commissioner of Coronie has asked policy makers to speed up the land requests, that were filed by residents of the nation’s coconut district. He ex­plained that 300 residents are still waiting for their land request to be processed. Some of them filed their land request more than fifty years ago. The Coronie residents who are tired of waiting for an answer went to DC Winter to complain about the delay. DC Winter reportedly brought copies of these land requests to the Office of the President where a division of the Ministry of Land Affairs and Land Management has been established. Sources told Times of Suriname that President Chandrikapersad Santokhi will visit the Coronie District soon. The residents hope that they will get their deeds from the president when he visits their district. …[+]

INDIA – India’s Supreme Court has set up a national task force of doctors to make recommendations on workplace safety following the rape and murder of a trainee medic at a state hospital that prompted nationwide protests. The court, which took up the case on its own, said on Tuesday that the doctors’ panel was being established to frame guidelines for the safety and protection of medical workers across the country. It directed the task force to submit an interim report within three weeks and a final report within two months.

India has been outraged by the 31-year-old trainee’s assault and killing inside a state-run hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, the crime again highlighting sexual violence against women in the country. Her bloodied and brutalised body was found on August 9. “Protecting safety of doctors and women doctors is a matter of national interest and principle of equality. The nation cannot await [for] another rape for it to take some steps,” Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud said.

“If women cannot go to a place of work and be safe, then we are denying them the basic conditions of equality,” said Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge bench of the court. The court also asked federal police to submit a report on Thursday on the status of its investigation into the woman’s murder at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. It additionally ordered a federal paramilitary force to provide security at the Kolkata hospital after women doctors said they did not feel safe after the crime and subsequent vandalisation of the facility by unidentified men.

Doctors and healthcare workers in India have held protests and candlelight vigils and have also been refusing to see nonemergency patients in their demand for a swift criminal investigation. The Supreme Court requested all doctors to return to work. (Aljazeera)…[+]